The Old Minster
The Old Minster was an Anglo-Saxon cathedral in Wincestre, Hamtunscire.
History[edit | edit source]
In 648, Cenwalh of Wessex became King of Wessex once more, and learning from his exile, he ordered the construction of the Old Minster. The construction was his way to make amends towards the Christian faith.[1] In 667, Bishop Wine became the first bishop to be consecrated in the Old Minster.[2]
In 877, Eivor Varinsdottir of the Raven Clan arrived at the cathedral to find a "man in white", as she had been instructed to do in a letter. Finding the man, Eivor spoke with the scholar Sigebeald and recited the coded words presented in the letter. After a brief conversation, Sigebeald led Eivor to meet her actual contact in a closed room upstairs. The Viking found herself meeting with King Alfred, who had summoned her to help him, as the Order of the Ancients was planning to kill him. Reluctantly, Eivor agreed and was told the monikers of three targets, The Gallows, The Quill, and The Seax, with the last one apparently being dead. She was also told to investigate Reeve Goodwin's disappearance.[3]
After Eivor found and killed all the Order targets, she went back to the Old Minster to meet with Alfred. However, the two were not alone, as the king was surrounded by soldiers and Sigebeald was sitting in the benches. With the threat of the Order eradicated, Alfred proved to be hostile towards Eivor, who was no longer of any use to him. However, he was willing to offer her a chance to renounce her "pagan" ways and gifted her a silver cross. After Eivor declined Alfred's offer of conversion, the king left and Eivor was attacked by his guards, whom she killed before fleeing Wincestre.[4]
Later, after Eivor had purged the Order from England, she was given a key by Alfred along with his Order medallion, as the king explained his position as the reluctant Grand Maegester of the Order. Alfred's key was for the study in the Old Minster, where Eivor had met the king previously. Sparing Alfred, Eivor returned to the church, accessed the study, and read through Alfred's archives, which detailed his thoughts on the Ancients and his plans to establish a "new order" from the ashes of the old one.[5]
While exploring the Old Minster, Eivor came across a chest within a room, behind a glass window. However, the chest needed three keys to open. Thus, Eivor searched around the cathedral and, after retrieving all the keys, she unlocked the chest and retrieved the Thegn's Great Helm. She also synchronized a viewpoint atop the cathedral's cross.[6]
In 878, after the Battle of Edington, the Viking chieftain Guthrum sued for peace and agreed to the terms of being baptized as a Christian in Wincestre, under Alfred's watch. Within the Old Minster, Guthrum was baptized as Aethelstan and became a Christian King in East Anglia, while Alfred became his godfather, creating symbolic kinship between the two rulers.[7]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
The Old Minster was demolished in 1093 and replaced by the Winchester Cathedral.[8]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (first appearance)
- Discovery Tour: Viking Age
- Assassin's Creed: Valhalla – The Hidden Codex
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla − Viking Expansion notes − Historical Musings
- ↑ Discovery Tour: Viking Age − Learnings: The City of Winchester
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla − The Reeve of Wincestre
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla − Impaling the Seax
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla − Breaking the Order
- ↑ Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
- ↑ Discovery Tour: Viking Age − A Barter for Peace
- ↑
Old Minster, Winchester on Wikipedia